26.12.2022, 07:09 - Baxış sayı: 476
THE MODELS OF LEADERSHIP PATRIOTISM AND PHILOSOPHY
ILHAM MAMMADZADEH
Doctor of philosophical sciences, prof.,
General Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
After we defeated Armenia in the 44-day war, it became clear that in today's world, only strong leaders can ensure the greatest success together with their nations. Also, the basis of our success is the legacy of Heydar Aliyev's idea and our correct understanding of it. This compatibility between past and present is the reason for our achievements. The legacy of the Nationwide Leader is not only the enlightened patriotism, but also the organization of work and activities, the solution and elimination of each difficulty has the power of influence. In our opinion, the events after the war, especially the vindictive tendencies in Armenia, what happened between Ukraine, Russia and NATO, show that not only legacy and patriotism are important, but also how modern they are for us and how they serve the development of the country. The plans of President Ilham Aliyev for the development of the South Caucasus, Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the Shusha Declaration, the strengthening of the Turkish Civilizational Union show that our country is developing progressively, involving neighboring states and regions in development. The essence of modernity and the modern philosophy of geopolitics is that development should be carried out not at the expense of others, but in interaction with them, and should be directed from the country to the region, neighboring regions and beyond. This concept and the experience of its implementation were created by Heydar Aliyev, made up the main part of the legacy of his ideas, and our country follows them.
These foundations are reflected, first of all, in his legacy, patriotism as part of historical memory, as well as in the rational understanding and development of his ideas in new conditions. The issue of new conditions is not just a generation. The world is changing and will change faster and faster. Heydar Aliyev's ideas make up the essence and meaning of our ideology, which links the past and the present, clarifies the underlying causes of citizens' passion for knowledge, science and life. But our time is changing every minute, this means changes not only in politics, but also in science, new economic models, and it is necessary to rethink them and show a new attitude towards legacy. In other words, it is impossible to build a developing society on the basis of new knowledge and achieve victories in the future without clarifying how patriotism should be, what new ideas are needed for the development of society and the state. In order for today's victories and successes to lead to new successes, it is necessary to think about what the present will be like in the future and how it differs from the past.
This thesis is not accepted by everyone and not everywhere. But if we look at the history of other countries, for example, all of Europe, the United States and even China, then we will have to admit that without patriotism and ideological legacy it is difficult to imagine development even in the era of digitalization and artificial intelligence, but in this era, patriotism is different, perhaps the rational one becomes technological one. The patriotism of a nationwide leader helps to understand the meaning of these changes, and the legacy should be considered from this point of view.
Memory and problems of cultural-historical epistemology
Memory as a scientific issue reflects its historical, political and philosophical context and aspects. Of course, for most researchers and, above all, historians, it is perceived as a historical memory. Modernity, clashes between countries, civilizations and cultures show that its interpretations can even lead to wars and revolutions. And so, it, as a certain memory or idea of the past, is undoubtedly relevant. But it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that the real idea of the past, if limited only by history, historical context, recollection, will be incomplete and restricted. Philosophy and, first of all, cultural-historical epistemology gives completeness to the consideration of the problem, answering the question of how the past and modernity, memory and truth are related, how knowledge about memory, about the past is replenished, what role culture plays in it, how this knowledge is verified, how they affect consciousness and practice.
These issues are considered in some of our recent books and articles, among which we would like to note the book “Philosophy about modernity, history and culture (On the contours of historical and cultural epistemology)”, Baku, 2020, and the collective monograph “Philosophy during the pandemic and LotfiZadeh's fuzzy logic”, Baku, 2021, of which we were the scientific editor, and in which we own several parts. It is clear that in these works we outline only a certain range of issues in our concept of cultural-historical epistemology, which needs to be developed, re-examined and deepened.
So, firstly, memory is a topic and a problem that has become associated with artificial intelligence, and our reflections on it will be limited if we do not identify and explore these context and aspects. Knowledge about neuroscience and cognitive sciences definitely involves new approaches and directions in philosophy and epistemology, revealing the specifics of the manifestation in public understanding and research of what is associated with the peculiarities of knowledge about the connections of the brain, intelligence, mathematics, ethics, and etc.
Secondly, epistemology, exploring the problems of memory, collisions of various knowledge and ideas about the past, about the role of the past in the collective consciousness, in order to obtain more complete knowledge, must apply interdisciplinary research, which, in turn, involves the use of mathematical and fuzzy logic. In other words, it is necessary to apply logic in history and historical knowledge. However, in Azerbaijani philosophy we faced a problem that had arisenwhen we started using the clear-fuzzy logic of our compatriot, the American scientist LotfiZadeh, to analyze social processes. Our specialists are interested in the logic itself, not its application.
Thirdly, in order to understand the past, history must be perceived and studied as the part of culture, moreover, as an object of philosophy, since culture without philosophy, as a rule, is perceived as a set of religions, languages, but not knowledge about culture, types of consciousness and thinking, which may be complete or incomplete, tolerant or non-tolerant, etc. The culture of our identity and our ideas about it may diverge, as well as, the identity and past of others, for instance, the identityof our near and farneighbors may be based not on knowledge, but on delusions and myths. Herecan be arisenmany problems that cause or can cause what is called “wars of sites of memory”, which leads to the mythologization of history.
Fourthly, history, the past, memory are often perceived by many only as a sphere related to politics. In this case, it issimplified, reduced to what is called a clash of interests, wills, and more broadly,culturesandcivilizations. Let us recall the work of S. Huntington, who reduced the entire history of civilizations to their clashes, ignoring the fact that every living civilization is also a culture and a history of mutual influence of cultures. However, such a simplification is now becoming dangerous for the fate of cultures. In our view, cultural-historical epistemology, the philosophy of culture in particular, should reflect on this as well. The processes of memory reduction to individual events, historical facts, replacement of scientific explanation with myths lead not only to “memory wars”, but also to real confrontations. We think that philosophy, qualitative education and enlightenment can stop the slide into a clash of civilizations.
Fifth, epistemology in Western philosophy was developed in the 1960s, and this direction is relevant today in a number of countries around the world. Even so their research does not replace our research, our philosophy of history and culture. Therefore, despite the importance of analyzing, for example, the epistemology of M. Foucault, it is important to understand how its interdisciplinary nature, theoreticaland practical applicationare manifested. In our opinion, for all the importance of documents, archives, materials and libraries for memory, history, past, no less important is the philosophical view of them as a culture, as a certain style of thinking and a change in types of thinking, as an interaction of cultures and consciousness, as a restoration and striving for a genuine cultural history of the community.
And, finally, as a rule, when philosophers think about these problems, it means that the community has accumulated a certain potential for rationalizing its history, searching for a reasonable measure against excess, both external influence, and excessive isolation.
Conclusion
And now specifically about how philosophy can be useful in solving these problems. Is philosophy needed in Azerbaijan today, how does it affect the consciousness, values, development of society, etc.? there is a lot of discussion about this. Philosophers are generally convinced that this contributes to the development of culture, science and education. According to opinion polls, market economy, capitalism, etc. There are many people who think that philosophy is useless. In our opinion, thinking about this discrepancy between expert opinion and public opinion is effective, since philosophy is important in science, culture, educational work, etc., involves a rethinking of its role.
We need such an interpretation. Obviously, philosophy cannot remain the same. However, despite the inevitability of changes, it will remain a means of knowing the world, consciousness, society and human-being, and therefore will make it possible to know and transform culture. But today, in the context of the development of artificial intelligence, philosophy can deepen its influence not only on culture, but also on human consciousness, including economic consciousness and behavior, and social practice. In this way:
1. Of course, philosophy is a specific science, distinguished by a special cognitive attitude to the world and culture. It differs from religion in that it tries to comprehend the world, culture, human freedom rationally, on the basis of reason and logic, purposefully. On the other hand, it differs from the sciences that produce concrete and therefore limited knowledge. With the help of interdisciplinary research and, above all, sociology, economics, law and political science, he can gain specific knowledge, understand the real situation in culture, identify factors hindering the spread of enlightened (cultural) patriotism, and give specific recommendations.
2. Philosophy is part of a culture, of course, a high culture, and therefore may not be of interest to everyone. The characteristics of philosophy shown by Hegel are still known: philosophy is the blood of culture, its quintessence (main essence, substance), etc. Culture can be understood as a complex system of supra-biological (extra-biological) programs of human activity, behavior and communication. These programs provide knowledge, ideals, ethical norms, behavior patterns, etc. We also emphasize that philosophy is a part of a culture that changes people and makes them more perfect, creating new ideals, worldview meanings, norms and behavior patterns.
3. New meanings, creating a new understanding (meaning) of old concepts, philosophy models the understanding of culture as a whole, the system. How it was before, it is the same now. But if in the past he tried to construct a system of philosophy of absolute truth, now he can admit, for example, the necessity of the coexistence of many truths. The philosophical understanding of modern culture as the interaction of various local cultures within society is necessary for the development of the country or overcoming threats.
4. In the past, our philosophy did not see and accept an intermediary between being and consciousness (and even today there are many such philosophers). Activity is now understood as an intermediary between being and mind. Therefore, the fact that activity is rooted and fixed in being is fundamentally different from the Marxist "theory", because the content shows that consciousness is not unconditional, it is socio-culturally conditioned.
5. Since there is no absolute truth, it is clear that dialogue has been understood differently in the past and today. Understanding the role of intercultural interaction (communication) in our time requires clarifying how we understand dialogue. If earlier the dialogue was an attempt to find the truth, the discovery of which ended the dialogue, that is, a return to a single point of view, now we understand that the dialogue is a continuous, continuous process, because not a single point of view is absolutely true, true and can claim to end the discussion. It is necessary to understand that the main initial principle of philosophical dialogue is not to impose your knowledge on the opponent, but to learn something, to want to know. Of course, it is difficult to give up the desire to know something unshakable, absolute. The desire for and belief in absolute knowledge is still widespread, but it is difficult to find and prove it.
6. Speaking about philosophy, it is necessary to see its general methodological status and ethical basis. It should also be noted that they are related to each other. The sociocultural nature of any knowledge especially emphasizes this connection, is emphasized by the growing importance of the freedom of a creative and active person. Philosophy creates an ideal image of the world and forms an intellectual and spiritual picture of human and social life. Each specific form of culture (theater, cinema, etc.) has its own specific place, but life, science in general is the place of philosophy, perhaps the place of a meaningful and spiritual life of a person.
7. In principle, all the previous theses testify to the usefulness of philosophy in solving the problems of educating enlightened and cultural patriotism. As for the assertions that still exist about the alleged uselessness of philosophy, they exist where philosophical knowledge stops in its development. Such a stop, by the way, leads to a delay in the development of science. Now it is clear that the value neutrality of science is a myth, that solutions in science are possible because they follow to some extent from certain paradigms and axioms. Philosophy is based on the fact that they can be revised, and shows the possibility of looking at them differently.
Thus, philosophy is useful for society, ideology and a human-being, it allows you to expand the horizons of knowledge and consciousness and at the same time connects through moral programs the freedom of a person with his life experience, i.e. to limit the growth of frivolity and aggression, and this contributes to the spread of enlightened and cultural patriotism and so on.
Doctor of philosophical sciences, prof.,
General Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
After we defeated Armenia in the 44-day war, it became clear that in today's world, only strong leaders can ensure the greatest success together with their nations. Also, the basis of our success is the legacy of Heydar Aliyev's idea and our correct understanding of it. This compatibility between past and present is the reason for our achievements. The legacy of the Nationwide Leader is not only the enlightened patriotism, but also the organization of work and activities, the solution and elimination of each difficulty has the power of influence. In our opinion, the events after the war, especially the vindictive tendencies in Armenia, what happened between Ukraine, Russia and NATO, show that not only legacy and patriotism are important, but also how modern they are for us and how they serve the development of the country. The plans of President Ilham Aliyev for the development of the South Caucasus, Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the Shusha Declaration, the strengthening of the Turkish Civilizational Union show that our country is developing progressively, involving neighboring states and regions in development. The essence of modernity and the modern philosophy of geopolitics is that development should be carried out not at the expense of others, but in interaction with them, and should be directed from the country to the region, neighboring regions and beyond. This concept and the experience of its implementation were created by Heydar Aliyev, made up the main part of the legacy of his ideas, and our country follows them.
These foundations are reflected, first of all, in his legacy, patriotism as part of historical memory, as well as in the rational understanding and development of his ideas in new conditions. The issue of new conditions is not just a generation. The world is changing and will change faster and faster. Heydar Aliyev's ideas make up the essence and meaning of our ideology, which links the past and the present, clarifies the underlying causes of citizens' passion for knowledge, science and life. But our time is changing every minute, this means changes not only in politics, but also in science, new economic models, and it is necessary to rethink them and show a new attitude towards legacy. In other words, it is impossible to build a developing society on the basis of new knowledge and achieve victories in the future without clarifying how patriotism should be, what new ideas are needed for the development of society and the state. In order for today's victories and successes to lead to new successes, it is necessary to think about what the present will be like in the future and how it differs from the past.
This thesis is not accepted by everyone and not everywhere. But if we look at the history of other countries, for example, all of Europe, the United States and even China, then we will have to admit that without patriotism and ideological legacy it is difficult to imagine development even in the era of digitalization and artificial intelligence, but in this era, patriotism is different, perhaps the rational one becomes technological one. The patriotism of a nationwide leader helps to understand the meaning of these changes, and the legacy should be considered from this point of view.
Memory and problems of cultural-historical epistemology
Memory as a scientific issue reflects its historical, political and philosophical context and aspects. Of course, for most researchers and, above all, historians, it is perceived as a historical memory. Modernity, clashes between countries, civilizations and cultures show that its interpretations can even lead to wars and revolutions. And so, it, as a certain memory or idea of the past, is undoubtedly relevant. But it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that the real idea of the past, if limited only by history, historical context, recollection, will be incomplete and restricted. Philosophy and, first of all, cultural-historical epistemology gives completeness to the consideration of the problem, answering the question of how the past and modernity, memory and truth are related, how knowledge about memory, about the past is replenished, what role culture plays in it, how this knowledge is verified, how they affect consciousness and practice.
These issues are considered in some of our recent books and articles, among which we would like to note the book “Philosophy about modernity, history and culture (On the contours of historical and cultural epistemology)”, Baku, 2020, and the collective monograph “Philosophy during the pandemic and LotfiZadeh's fuzzy logic”, Baku, 2021, of which we were the scientific editor, and in which we own several parts. It is clear that in these works we outline only a certain range of issues in our concept of cultural-historical epistemology, which needs to be developed, re-examined and deepened.
So, firstly, memory is a topic and a problem that has become associated with artificial intelligence, and our reflections on it will be limited if we do not identify and explore these context and aspects. Knowledge about neuroscience and cognitive sciences definitely involves new approaches and directions in philosophy and epistemology, revealing the specifics of the manifestation in public understanding and research of what is associated with the peculiarities of knowledge about the connections of the brain, intelligence, mathematics, ethics, and etc.
Secondly, epistemology, exploring the problems of memory, collisions of various knowledge and ideas about the past, about the role of the past in the collective consciousness, in order to obtain more complete knowledge, must apply interdisciplinary research, which, in turn, involves the use of mathematical and fuzzy logic. In other words, it is necessary to apply logic in history and historical knowledge. However, in Azerbaijani philosophy we faced a problem that had arisenwhen we started using the clear-fuzzy logic of our compatriot, the American scientist LotfiZadeh, to analyze social processes. Our specialists are interested in the logic itself, not its application.
Thirdly, in order to understand the past, history must be perceived and studied as the part of culture, moreover, as an object of philosophy, since culture without philosophy, as a rule, is perceived as a set of religions, languages, but not knowledge about culture, types of consciousness and thinking, which may be complete or incomplete, tolerant or non-tolerant, etc. The culture of our identity and our ideas about it may diverge, as well as, the identity and past of others, for instance, the identityof our near and farneighbors may be based not on knowledge, but on delusions and myths. Herecan be arisenmany problems that cause or can cause what is called “wars of sites of memory”, which leads to the mythologization of history.
Fourthly, history, the past, memory are often perceived by many only as a sphere related to politics. In this case, it issimplified, reduced to what is called a clash of interests, wills, and more broadly,culturesandcivilizations. Let us recall the work of S. Huntington, who reduced the entire history of civilizations to their clashes, ignoring the fact that every living civilization is also a culture and a history of mutual influence of cultures. However, such a simplification is now becoming dangerous for the fate of cultures. In our view, cultural-historical epistemology, the philosophy of culture in particular, should reflect on this as well. The processes of memory reduction to individual events, historical facts, replacement of scientific explanation with myths lead not only to “memory wars”, but also to real confrontations. We think that philosophy, qualitative education and enlightenment can stop the slide into a clash of civilizations.
Fifth, epistemology in Western philosophy was developed in the 1960s, and this direction is relevant today in a number of countries around the world. Even so their research does not replace our research, our philosophy of history and culture. Therefore, despite the importance of analyzing, for example, the epistemology of M. Foucault, it is important to understand how its interdisciplinary nature, theoreticaland practical applicationare manifested. In our opinion, for all the importance of documents, archives, materials and libraries for memory, history, past, no less important is the philosophical view of them as a culture, as a certain style of thinking and a change in types of thinking, as an interaction of cultures and consciousness, as a restoration and striving for a genuine cultural history of the community.
And, finally, as a rule, when philosophers think about these problems, it means that the community has accumulated a certain potential for rationalizing its history, searching for a reasonable measure against excess, both external influence, and excessive isolation.
Conclusion
And now specifically about how philosophy can be useful in solving these problems. Is philosophy needed in Azerbaijan today, how does it affect the consciousness, values, development of society, etc.? there is a lot of discussion about this. Philosophers are generally convinced that this contributes to the development of culture, science and education. According to opinion polls, market economy, capitalism, etc. There are many people who think that philosophy is useless. In our opinion, thinking about this discrepancy between expert opinion and public opinion is effective, since philosophy is important in science, culture, educational work, etc., involves a rethinking of its role.
We need such an interpretation. Obviously, philosophy cannot remain the same. However, despite the inevitability of changes, it will remain a means of knowing the world, consciousness, society and human-being, and therefore will make it possible to know and transform culture. But today, in the context of the development of artificial intelligence, philosophy can deepen its influence not only on culture, but also on human consciousness, including economic consciousness and behavior, and social practice. In this way:
1. Of course, philosophy is a specific science, distinguished by a special cognitive attitude to the world and culture. It differs from religion in that it tries to comprehend the world, culture, human freedom rationally, on the basis of reason and logic, purposefully. On the other hand, it differs from the sciences that produce concrete and therefore limited knowledge. With the help of interdisciplinary research and, above all, sociology, economics, law and political science, he can gain specific knowledge, understand the real situation in culture, identify factors hindering the spread of enlightened (cultural) patriotism, and give specific recommendations.
2. Philosophy is part of a culture, of course, a high culture, and therefore may not be of interest to everyone. The characteristics of philosophy shown by Hegel are still known: philosophy is the blood of culture, its quintessence (main essence, substance), etc. Culture can be understood as a complex system of supra-biological (extra-biological) programs of human activity, behavior and communication. These programs provide knowledge, ideals, ethical norms, behavior patterns, etc. We also emphasize that philosophy is a part of a culture that changes people and makes them more perfect, creating new ideals, worldview meanings, norms and behavior patterns.
3. New meanings, creating a new understanding (meaning) of old concepts, philosophy models the understanding of culture as a whole, the system. How it was before, it is the same now. But if in the past he tried to construct a system of philosophy of absolute truth, now he can admit, for example, the necessity of the coexistence of many truths. The philosophical understanding of modern culture as the interaction of various local cultures within society is necessary for the development of the country or overcoming threats.
4. In the past, our philosophy did not see and accept an intermediary between being and consciousness (and even today there are many such philosophers). Activity is now understood as an intermediary between being and mind. Therefore, the fact that activity is rooted and fixed in being is fundamentally different from the Marxist "theory", because the content shows that consciousness is not unconditional, it is socio-culturally conditioned.
5. Since there is no absolute truth, it is clear that dialogue has been understood differently in the past and today. Understanding the role of intercultural interaction (communication) in our time requires clarifying how we understand dialogue. If earlier the dialogue was an attempt to find the truth, the discovery of which ended the dialogue, that is, a return to a single point of view, now we understand that the dialogue is a continuous, continuous process, because not a single point of view is absolutely true, true and can claim to end the discussion. It is necessary to understand that the main initial principle of philosophical dialogue is not to impose your knowledge on the opponent, but to learn something, to want to know. Of course, it is difficult to give up the desire to know something unshakable, absolute. The desire for and belief in absolute knowledge is still widespread, but it is difficult to find and prove it.
6. Speaking about philosophy, it is necessary to see its general methodological status and ethical basis. It should also be noted that they are related to each other. The sociocultural nature of any knowledge especially emphasizes this connection, is emphasized by the growing importance of the freedom of a creative and active person. Philosophy creates an ideal image of the world and forms an intellectual and spiritual picture of human and social life. Each specific form of culture (theater, cinema, etc.) has its own specific place, but life, science in general is the place of philosophy, perhaps the place of a meaningful and spiritual life of a person.
7. In principle, all the previous theses testify to the usefulness of philosophy in solving the problems of educating enlightened and cultural patriotism. As for the assertions that still exist about the alleged uselessness of philosophy, they exist where philosophical knowledge stops in its development. Such a stop, by the way, leads to a delay in the development of science. Now it is clear that the value neutrality of science is a myth, that solutions in science are possible because they follow to some extent from certain paradigms and axioms. Philosophy is based on the fact that they can be revised, and shows the possibility of looking at them differently.
Thus, philosophy is useful for society, ideology and a human-being, it allows you to expand the horizons of knowledge and consciousness and at the same time connects through moral programs the freedom of a person with his life experience, i.e. to limit the growth of frivolity and aggression, and this contributes to the spread of enlightened and cultural patriotism and so on.